I have seen the movie myself tonight in a small cineastic movie theater in the unlikely town of Bielefeld, North Rhine Westphalia. There was a small but devoted community present in the cinema that got ALL your jokes. I guess that we all had had our proper education in the Prairie Home Companion long before the wonderful movie.

I've been living in Italy for about a year and a half and just this evening I caught by chance the PHC movie on our cable tv network. What hit me was a rocking, shocking, stirring, bubbling up feeling of something distinctly American, but more than that: something of a part of me I haven't been thinking about for a while now -- some good news from home amidst the messes filtered out by news networks. It was a kind of something rolling by as so many Saturday afternoons had rolled by, the way only radio can do, except this time in sound and picture: tugging away willy-nilly at the heart strings. I really missed it -- not the radio show...dadum dum...but the part of me I had been ignoring. May I say also that that line about remembering was so perfect: "I just don't want to tell them to." They'll remember because it's part of them; it's in their hearts.

Garrison,

I'll be chuckling through my evening chores thinking of P.I.T.T.S. Somewhere in the last year or so, I decdided we are a family of P.I.T.S. , acronym for People in Training. My children (who are above average) have not appreciated being called a "pit", but it was easier for me to not be so frustrated over smaller incidences.

Thanks for the entertainment.
Bonnie Haugen, Canton, Mn.

I don't know about your talent show this weekend, Garrison. "Lake Wobegon Idol" just doesn't roll off the tongue, does it?

My affection for APHC was reignited by Mr Altman's "last movie" when it screened here in Australia. I was literally glowing when I floated from the cinema, my friend told me. Now I listen online wishing the whole world would catch on, but knowing I can't tell them to. Some I tell the penguin joke and recommend they go buy the DVD. And listen to the show, of course. (You don't mind, do you? About me telling the penguin joke? Ok, ok, I'll stop trying to explain it!)

Hi Folks,

I too am living temporarily in Germany, and I seem to remember the APHC movie playing here in Mannheim months ago (before Christmas). Having seen it twice last summer in the States, I have not seen the German version. Most Americam movies that play here are dubbed in German, and I imagine hearing Garrison speak German with someone else's voice would be really odd. (Although I love it when he speaks Norwegian!)

I also have not missed a show since last September, thanks to the Internet. Listening to this quintessentially American show while living in another country is a totally different experience. For one thing, it comes on at midnight here, which to me is a much better time slot. Last Fall, while I was still reeling from culture shock, APHC was like a beacon in a storm. Like I got to come home once a week.

Thanks, guys. Keep up the good work.

Russ Rowe

I am originally from Germany (Unterfranken), and I have lived in Butte Montana for 37 years. For about the last 20 or so our family ritual has been to listen to PHC. First our 2 boys listened with us, and now they listen with families of their own in Kansas and North Carolina.
My friends know that I do not entertain when PHC is on. The tapes make for great entertainment on long trips.
Especially in light of the many anti-US sentiments abroad, I can only say if you want to see what America is really like, listen to PHC. Somehow the host manages to capture what is in our hearts. Of course coming from an environment with weather as severe in Minnesota, we can really relate! Also, having grown up a Lutheran refugee in a very Catholic small town in Bavaria makes you appreciate the stories about these people.
My favorite is the "mother spit" story.
Julie Buckley